Category: Destroyers

Saul was a Signalman and unofficial photographer on Inglefield in 1941–42. He served mainly in Norwegian and Arctic waters before being invalided out. He then describes briefly the ship's career up to her eventual sinking off Anzio.

BURKETT, Molly & STREET, Robert. Once Upon A Wartime X. 96p., illus. Grantham: Barny Books, 2001. ISBN: 1903172144.

A small set of oral recollections. Only one is naval. Douglas Martin joined up in mid-1942 and after radar training was posted to Allynback [sic – presumably Alynbank] in Cardiff in mid-1943. He took part in HUSKY and when she decommissioned he was sent to Serapis and the Russian convoys. She moved south for D-Day. He then transferred to Zest in mid-1945.

BONIFACE, Patrick. Battle Class Destroyers. 258p., bibliog., illus. Liskeard: Maritime Books, 2007. ISBN: 1904459285.

A brief account of the history of this late wartime class is  followed by a listing for each of the class, with ship histories, composition of squadrons etc., leavened with reminiscences of those who served in them.

Another good account of a famous ship from this well-illustrated part work/series. Concentrates heavily on the St. Nazaire Raid.

He was a Leading Seaman Radar aged 21 and this memoir is based on his contemporary diary. She sailed to Freetown in mid-1943 and was based there as an escort. Late in the year she moved back to the UK for Arctic convoys, starting with JW54B. After RA59 she moved back to the UK for D-Day. The diary concludes at the end of June 1944.

Highlights the main actions of the war, particularly in the Atlantic, Arctic, and Mediterranean.

Includes a brief potted biography of the sixth of name.

The author's experience of the lower deck of the wartime Navy. It covers his career from joining the Navy, through his service on a destroyer to his move to King Alfred to try for his commission.

The first year of the war as fought by a fictional V & W Class destroyer. The author served on such a ship, but has dramatised his account of events.

He was drafted into the RN in early 1942. After training at Collingwood he was posted to the newly built Zetland on which he served from 1942 to 1944. His story covers her sea trials then life at sea covering Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys, including Operation TORCH. He was at the port of Bari when it was raided in December 1943, and was decorated for his work that night. In 1944 he was hospitalized as a consequence of the Bari raid. After recovering, he went on to serve with Naval Police and in other shore basis in Naples and in Sicily before being demobbed in 1946.

A biography of one of the overworked V & Ws, which served largely in home waters and with Atlantic and Gibraltar convoys until sunk in a memorable action.

Records the career of Faulknor and her forebears. Her arduous wartime activity is examined in some detail, including service with the Home Fleet, Force H, and in the Arctic. Reprinted by Maritime Books in 2005.

Tales of destroyer actions in both world wars.

DITCHAM, A. G. F. A Home on the Rolling Main: A Naval Memoir 1940-1946. 348p., illus. Presteigne: author, 2012. ISBN: 1848321759.

He joined Renown as a midshipman in 1940, then served in Holderness, Reading and Scorpion, finishing as a Lieutenant having seen service from Kola to Normandy. An enjoyable memoir.

The usual excellent brief history, clear photographs, and very detailed line drawings.

A history of the ship, which saw action in Norway, the Channel, and the Mediterranean before being sunk. Reprinted in 1952.

A mainly photographic look at a neglected group of warships.

A largely technical description of the ships and how they were modified. Profusely illustrated.

A fully illustrated brief account of one of the most heavily employed classes of ship in WWII.

Life on the lower deck of an escort destroyer in WWII described by a Cambridge don, from his own experience.

An autobiography. The author began the war in command of Javelin in home waters, then came Norway, Dunkirk and a badly damaged ship in a destroyer action in the Channel. He went on to command Fearless in Force H, Malta convoys, and the sinking of his ship. He next took command of the new destroyer Paladin, which joined the Eastern Fleet and served in the assault on Madagascar and a Malta convoy from Alexandria. He then joined the Mediterranean fleet in command of 14DF in Jervis. This was followed by command of one of the naval forces in the Neptune landings, liaison with the Canadians on the clearance of the Scheldt, naval force command of the Walcheren landing, and naval cooperation with the left flank of the Allied Army. Finally as Captain(D) of 19DF he took over the new destroyer Trafalgar to sail for the Far East, just as the war ended. A full life and a good book.

A technical description with considerable space given to the exploits of each vessel. About half concerns WWII.

A mixture of technical fact and operational history. The class was completed late in the war but saw some active service.

A popular account of the career of the famous destroyer commanded by Lord Mountbatten, from its early days in the North Sea to its final sinking off Crete. Published in paperback as Mountbatten's Fighting Kelly.

Although this work covers some often described actions, especially in Norway and the Channel, it has uncovered some fresh personal accounts and is notably good on such little discussed areas as the German minelaying campaign of the first winter of the war.

HOBBS, David. C Class Destroyers. x, 214p., illus. Liskeard: Maritime Books, 2012. ISBN: 9781904459491.

A good and well-illustrated history by this prolific author. Although it focuses on their post-war service, there is a good account of their design and building and such war service as took place. A chapter is devoted to each ship and its career.

SAXTON, Peter. Destroyers, Greyhounds of the Fleet: Memoirs of a Destroyer Gunner in the Second World War. 272p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2024. ISBN: 9781036112295.

From the North Sea to the Mediterranean and D-Day a modest but perceptive memoir.

KONSTAM. Angus. British Lend-Lease Warships 1940–45: The Royal Navy's American-built Destroyers and Frigates (New Vanguard 330). 48p., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2024. ISBN: 9781472861283.

Covers the fifty four-stack Town Class Destroyers which were in turn followed by a further hundred ships including many frigates specially built in American shipyards. There are detailed ship profiles of the major classes, a cutaway of HMS Campbeltown (of Saint-Nazaire raid fame) as it appeared in 1941, and excellent battle scene artwork.

CLARKE, Alexander. Tribals, Battles and Darings: The Genesis of the Modern Destroyer. 176p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2021. ISBN: 9781526772909.

A profusely illustrated account of the creation and wartime deployment of these three classes showing how the destroyer developed as a self-reliant resource.

DIVINE, A. D. Destroyers' War: A Million Miles with the Eighth Flotilla. vi, 166p., illus. London: Murray; New York: Dutton, 1942.

The story of Firedrake and the other F Class destroyers, in the first two years of the war. They began it with the Home Fleet and saw action in the Norwegian campaign, but are probably best known for their service as the original destroyer screen of Force H. US title: Firedrake: The Destroyer That Wouldn't Give Up. Reprinted by Sagwan Press in 2015 as a work of cultural significance, ISBN: 9781340301736.

GAVED, A. E. School Days to Navy Days 1925-1946. 208p., illus. Wellington: Ryelands, 2009. ISBN: 9781906551223.

An autobiography. Aged seventeen he enlisted in 1943. He was an Asdic operator and served on Venus on Russian convoys and in the Far East.

FRIEDMAN, Norman (ed). British Naval Weapons of World War II. The John Lambert Collection edited with an introduction by Norman Friedman. 3 vols., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2019-20.

John Lambert died in 2016. He was a renowned draughtsman who specialised in smaller naval vessels and left some 850 sheets of drawings and plans, covering everything from turret guns to underwater weapons. These have now been published with excellent photographs added, edited with an introduction by an acknowledged expert in Norman Friedman. Volume I covers destroyer weapons (ISBN: 9781526747679); Volume II covers escort and minesweeper weapons (ISBN: 9781526750471); Volume III covers coastal forces weapons (ISBN: 9781526777102).

ROBERTS, John. Destroyer Cossack: Detailed in Original Builder’s Plans. 128p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2020. ISBN: 9781526777065.

Using the original plans as the centrepiece of this book, an acknowledged expert gives a full description of the design and construction and service of the famous destroyer. Profusely illustrated.

HENSHAW, John. V & W Class Destroyers: A Developmental History. 160p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2020. ISBN: 9781526774828.

A comprehensive and profusely illustrated guide to these workhorse destroyers and their various modifications.

HENSHAW, John. Town Class Destroyers: A Critical Assessment. 96p., bibliog., illus., index. Ramsbury: Crowood, 2018. ISBN: 9781785004018.

Well-illustrated with photographs and plans, the author takes a fairly negative view of their value.

JANE, Mick. The History of H.M.S. Melbreak: Cockermouth’s Adopted Ship During World War Two. 36p., illus. Fletchertown: [author], 2008.

Mainly concerned with the work of the British Ship Adoption Society and in particular how the Hunt Class Destroyer Melbreak interacted with Cockermouth.

DENNIS, J. A. J. In Action with Destroyers 1939-1945. The Wartime Memoirs of Commander J. A. J. Dennis, DSC, RN, edited by Anthony Cumming. 208p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 2017. ISBN: 9781526718495.

Dennis served in four destroyers; HMS Griffin and Savage initially before commanding Valorous and Tetcott. He was mentioned in Despatches three times (Norway, sinking the Scharnhorst and in the North Sea) and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (Greece 1942). His war service also included the Madagascar operation, the Malta and Arctic convoys and D-Day.

A memoir from an Able Seaman of her busy career from 1942 to 1946.

MOORE, Robert J. A Hard Fought Ship: The Story of HMS Venomous. [xv], 135, [7]p., illus. Loughborough: [author], 1990. ISBN: 0951568302.

Recommissioned in 1939, she saw service at Dunkirk, East Coast convoys, Atlantic convoys, PQ15, Pedestal, and post-Torch Mediterranean convoys. She spent the last year of the war as a crash tender for FAA training in Scotland, but was involved in the liberation of Norway before being paid off. A revised edition was published in 2010 by Holywell House Publishing, but is a substantially new work (ISBN: 0955938207).  A hardback edition with five new chapters, a hundred more pages and many new photographs was published in April 2017 (ISBN 9780955938245).                   

WAKELAM, W. L. HMS Tartar 1939-1948. viii, 74p., illus. Birkenhead: Appin, 2008. ISBN: 9781906205157.

A former crew member provides a brief history. Fourteen pithy chapters detail her very active career from Scapa to Burma.

HODGES, Peter. Tribal Class Destroyers: Royal Navy and Commonwealth. 80p., illus. London: Almark, 1971. ISBN: 0855240466.

A detailed technical history of perhaps the most famous British destroyer class. They entered service from 1938 and fought in every theatre. Well illustrated.

JOHNSTONE-BRYDEN, Richard. HMS Cavalier: Destroyer 1944. 129p., bibliog., illus., index. Barnsley: Seaforth, 2015. ISBN: 9781848322264.

Cavalier was one of the last war built destroyers and is preserved at Chatham. This book gives a brief account of her service and a detailed guide to her present state. Profusely illustrated.

THOMPSON, Chester. The Long Day Wanes: A Memoir of Love and War. xiv, 202p., illus. New Smyrna Beach, FL: White Sound Press, 2004. ISBN: 0932265758.

An autobiography. He served on Beverley in the Battle of the Atlantic and with Landing Craft at D-Day.

SMITH, Peter C. Fighting Flotilla: HMS Laforey and her Sister Ships. 224p., illus., index. London: Kimber, 1976. ISBN: 0718303148.

A description of the design, building, and service of the L Class destroyers. Well-produced and more than competently described. A second edition was published by Pen & Sword Maritime in 2010, subtitled RN Laforey Class Destroyers in World War II (ISBN: 1848842732).

MALLALIEU, J. P. W. Very Ordinary Seaman. 278p. London: Gollancz, 1944.

The fictionalised account of the author’s five months in a destroyer notably on the Murmansk run. A classic account of life on the lower with a notably strong account of how disparate and often selfish individuals shake down to become a cohesive team.   

EVANS, A. S. Destroyer Down: An Account of HM Destroyer Losses 1939-1945. 216p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2010. ISBN:  1848842708.

Published posthumously some sixteen years after his death this is a companion volume to his work on submarine losses. Arranged chronologically and with many first hand accounts it was and is clearly an unfinished work. There are many errors which inevitably make the book suspect as a source.  Moreover the lack of any source notes, bibliography or acknowledgments is unhelpful and makes the work unreliable.  

JOHNSON, C. J. A. Hither and Yon: Memoirs of a Naval Officer 1937-1973. 287p., illus. Bristol: Paralalia, 2007. ISBN: 0954811747.

The autobiography of a happy and successful career naval officer. He joined as a cadet in 1937 and saw wartime service on Verity on the East Coast and in the Atlantic; on Dauntless in the Indian Ocean; and as First Lieutenant on Melbreak in the Channel and at D-Day where he saw much action. He was standing by Chaplet in 1945 as the war drew to a close.

GREGORY-SMITH, FRANK. Red Tobruk: Memoirs of a World War II Destroyer Commander. viii, 200p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2008. ISBN: 1844158624.

An autobiography. He went to Dartmouth in 1922 and by 1939 was First Lieutenant of Jaguar. After Norway and Dunkirk he stood by Eridge as her new captain. On completion she moved to the Mediterranean and a hectic war with eighteen months of convoys to Tobruk and Malta. In August 1942 she was torpedoed by an Italian MTB. Under constant air attack, she was towed to Alexandria, but was irreparable. This Mediterranean period forms the heart of the book. A brief coda describes his role as a D-Day Beachmaster.

Petard's wartime career as told by her gunnery officer and covering 1942–1944. She served in the Eastern Mediterranean and briefly with the Eastern Fleet.

This volume completes perhaps the definitive series on the creation and deployment of Britain's wartime destroyers.

A good account with a few paragraphs on the career of each ship.

A fully illustrated description of the design, building, equipment, and service of the destroyers of the inter-war period.

A good reference work detailing the construction and service of these groups of destroyers.

Brief memoirs of an ERA who served from fitting out until two weeks before her sinking. Dulverton was a Mediterranean-based Hunt class. Interesting for showing the concerns of the engine room.

The story of a ship which served tirelessly in the Mediterranean.

An examination of the weapons and performance of the ex-Brazilian H Class destroyers, concentrating on Hesperus. They figured prominently in the Battle of the Atlantic.

This history of the regiment includes a two page biography of Loyal, their chummy ship.

Describes the career of the fictional Tribal HMS Skye, during six weeks in 1942. Her service until her sinking in the Eastern Mediterranean is recorded. A sequel to The Stone Frigate.

A brief account of the four flotillas of destroyers built or building at war's end. A brief operational history is given for each vessel.

The little remarked Jervis had a "good war" with a record 13 battle honours and no deaths due to enemy action. A typical thorough piece of work in the style of the author's earlier writings records her career, notably in the Mediterranean.

HMS Cavalier was one of 96 War Emergency Programme destroyers ordered between 1940 and 1942. She is now preserved and this is a short account of her career.

The story of the "O" Class destroyers which between them escorted 44 Arctic convoys.

Concentrates on 1939–42 when he served on the destroyer.

The tale of a destroyer that served with the Home Fleet then went to the Far East to be sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea.

Life on the lower deck of a fleet destroyer completed in 1942 and heavily involved in Arctic convoys.

Some 124 well-chosen and captioned photographs.

A brief popular history of destroyers. About half concerns some of the better-known British destroyers and their battles in WWII.

A technical account, with histories of each ship in the class.

The namesake town adopted the destroyer and this account shows how they were intertwined until her sinking in 1943.

The author served on the Hunt Class Bicester from her commissioning in 1942 until 1946 on the lower deck. She was active in the Mediterranean and he concentrates on this.

She was a Hunt Class destroyer commissioned on the last day of 1941. Within a month she was based at Scapa covering convoy QP6. She made a brief foray to the Mediterranean for the Harpoon convoy, but stayed in Northern waters until transferred to the Channel in March 1944. D-Day was followed by work in the North Sea then a refit. She was en route to join the Pacific Fleet at war's end. Full of crew reminiscences, this is a lively tale.

A careful and loving history of an important class of American vessels, including those sent to Britain in the destroyers for bases deal. Revised printing issued in 1989.

A very brief history with about half on WWII. The author served as surgeon during the war and gives a vivid account of her role in the Channel Dash.

The commissioning and service career of the last British destroyer to be lost in WW2. The Hunt Class destroyer went down in the Mediterranean with two- thirds of the crew lost, after being mined.

The standard work, with 175 photographs and 100 detailed plans, although it can be frustratingly incomplete.

An early attempt at a comprehensive listing. Although well illustrated, it has only very limited details of each destroyer.

Mack was a seaman gunner on Intrepid 1937–40 and reconstructs her busy wartime career, minelaying in the North Sea, the Altmark hunt, Dunkirk, the Bismarck hunt, Arctic convoys, Pedestal, Husky, and the Aegean where she was sunk in an air raid on Leros in September 1943.

Life in the destroyer Fortune in 1941–43. Vice-Admiral Sir Roderick Macdonald, then a Sublieutenant, joined a ship run by a captain - the Figurehead - who if not actually mad was certainly an oddball and loner and everything a leader should not be. Her disreputable but successful career is fully recounted with some excellent illustrations from the author.

A good brief account of the Tribals in general and Cossack in particular.

One of the series of small books which give technical details.

An excellent account which concentrates on their operational deployment. Atmospherically illustrated.

About half the book covers well-known destroyer actions of WWII.

Covers the D-Day period.

An autobiography much concerned with WWII. The author began the war in command of Ivanhoe in home waters. In January 1940 he was appointed to the Naval Ordnance Department and stayed there until December 1941 when he was appointed to Isis, refitting in Bombay. Until she was ready he acted as the Maintenance Commander at the base at Trincomalee. When Isis moved to the Mediterranean in February 1943 he was appointed Commander(D) of the 12th Flotilla in Pakenham and based on Malta. She was sunk and he returned to Isis which was soon based at Gibraltar. In March 1944 he was appointed Captain(D) of the 10th Flotilla in Tartar and aggressively kept the Channel free of Germans until February 1945 when she sailed East to Ceylon. He later retired as Senior Captain of the Fleet.

The current ship is a Type 23 Frigate. This souvenir has a short account of the fifth of name, the Norwegian manned Town Class destroyer.

A semi-religious tract. It tells of Kingston's service around Crete, of her last trip to Malta, and the subsequent work on the island by the survivors, of whom the author was one.

A largely photographic record. It was really a post-war class, only five ships being completed before the end of the war.

Covers some of the same ground as Donald's memoirs. He served in Ledbury during working-up, Russian convoys, and Pedestal, then took Grenville to the Adriatic in 1943. After Biscay days and Channel sweeps he returned to the Mediterranean for the Anzio landings. He brought the damaged Jervis back from the Mediterranean and after her repair took part in D-Day.

An excellent work which focuses on the "B" Class destroyers through reminiscence, official record and contemporary newspaper accounts. Also has a few oddments from submarines and the Merchant Navy.

He joined the RN via Ganges in 1933 and received relatively rapid promotion in the Signals Branch. He was serving in Tartar when war was declared and saw further service on Fernie and Wallace. He saw hard active service and this is an interesting anecdotal and opinionated description of life in hard worked destroyers.

An illustrated account of selected incidents in which destroyers played prominent roles.

A heavily illustrated account of each of the ships, arranged alphabetically, with details of war service and modifications.

A revised and expanded version of the work first published by the World Ship Society in 1988. Well-illustrated with a few paragraphs on the career of each vessel.

Examines wartime life on a destroyer in fictional form.

Roughly one-third of the book covers the design, construction and lessons from the war-built construction. An excellent and lucid guide.

An excellent account from a major author, focusing on the inter-war year destroyers.